Ho-ho-hollywood: From 'Mary Poppins Returns' to 'Vice,' the studios are rolling their best and brightest for the holiday season

By Al AlexanderFor The Patriot Ledger

Thursday

Nov 22, 2018 at 6:10 PM

There used to be a time when December was flooded with Oscar wannabes. No more. Nowadays, studios are favoring releasing their awards hopefuls in October and November. That’s going to be an even bigger trend next year when the Oscar ceremony moves up two weeks to early February.

This holiday season, there will still be a smattering of contenders released, most notably Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney satire, “Vice” (Dec. 25), and Yorgos Lanthimos’ royally scandalous “The Favourite” (Nov. 30). But for the most part you can expect a combination of crowd-pleasers, summer-like blockbusters and family films that play more to the wants of the ticket-buying public than Oscar voters.

For action fans, Dec. 21 should be your nirvana, with the superhero “Aquaman” looking to splash enough water to rust the king of clang, the “Transformers” spinoff, “Bumblebee,” when they go head-to-head. By far the most anticipated film is Disney’s revival of one of its most lucrative properties in “Mary Poppins Returns” (Dec. 19), with Julie Andrews passing the umbrella to Emily Blunt.

Hey, you, horror enthusiasts, Santa certainly hasn’t forgotten your wishes, with “The Possession of Hannah Grace” (Nov. 30) and the zombie-fest, “Anna and the Apocalypse” (Dec. 7), on the slate. For the kids, the animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (Dec. 14) should do the trick, ditto “Mortal Engines” (Dec. 14) for fantasy fans. And for the gray-hairs, there’s “The Mule” (Dec. 14), which Clint Eastwood says will serve as his acting swansong.

Oh, and comedy aficionados, look no farther than J.Lo’s “Second Act” (Dec. 21) and Will Ferrell’s “Holmes and Watson” (Dec. 25), which aims to turn Scotland Yard upside down. Last, but not least, a couple of historical dramas in “A Matter of Sex” (Dec. 25), about the landmark case Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued before the Supreme Court she would one day join, and “Mary Queen of Scots” (Dec. 14), about the fight for 16th century power in Great Britain. And there’s more, which I’ll let you discover below in my rundown of what Hollywood will be leaving under the tree before the end of the year – and in some cases, January, when a few late-arriving Oscar contenders make their Boston debuts. So let’s get going, beginning with:

Nov. 30

THE FAVOURITE: Oscar-winners Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone take cousinly rivalry to extremes as their aristocratic characters compete to become the favorite of England’s slightly dotty Queen Anne (Oscar-frontrunner Olivia Colman) in the latest surreal offering from Yorgos Lanthimos, the imaginative director of “The Lobster.”

SHOPLIFTERS: High among the frontrunners for the Foreign Language Oscar is this heartwarming gem from Hirokazu Koreeda (the brilliant “After the Storm”) about a family of thieves who have their lives changed when they come upon an abandoned little girl.

THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE: When a pathologist (Shay Mitchell) takes possession of a disfigured cadaver, she becomes possessed by demons emanating from the corpse.

BECOMING ASTRID: An ambitious young woman faces many obstacles in 1920s Sweden in this true story about the liberation of Astrid Lindgren (Alba August), the author of “Pippi Longstocking.”

Dec. 6

ROMA: Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”) captured top prize at the Venice Film Festival for his deeply personal tribute to the young domestic (Yalitza Aparicio) who transcended social standing and strife to help raise him in the 1970s in the middle-class Roma neighborhood of Mexico City.

Dec. 7

ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE: What would the holidays be without a ravenous zombie apocalypse? Fear not, here comes one, transpiring on Christmas Day no less, as teenaged Anna and her friends chase the walking dead from her picturesque village.

DUMPLIN’: In the second of three Netflix features also opening in theaters this month, Danielle Macdonald plays a plus-size, teenager out to sink a dagger into her bullying mother (Jennifer Aniston) by signing up for the beauty pageant Mom once won and now runs. Anne Fletcher (“27 Dresses”) directs.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER - THE ROGER AILES STORY: While waiting for Jay Roach’s all-star feature film about Fox News founder Roger Ailes, enjoy this documentary from Alexis Bloom about how the “Republican Svengali” helped sculpt the current political climate of anger, ruthlessness and lies.

Dec. 12

ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL: Ryan Reynolds returns, but his F-bombs don’t for this family friendly, more respectable re-edited version of “Deadpool 2,” with $1 from every ticket going to fight cancer. F-ing awesome!

Dec. 14

THE MULE: Clint Eastwood is generating Oscar buzz, both for his acting and direction, in this AARP-approved tale about an octogenarian (Eastwood) so desperate for cash he unwittingly takes a job as a narcotics smuggler. Bradley Cooper, earning his own bit of Oscar buzz for “A Star Is Born,” plays the DEA agent in pursuit.

MORTAL ENGINES: Peter Jackson co-wrote and produces this highly anticipated post-apocalyptic fantasy about a mysterious young woman (Hera Hilmar) fighting to stop London -- now a predator city on wheels -- from devouring everything in its path. Yes, you read that right!

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE: “The LEGO Movie” architects, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, rewrite the Spider-Man template with an animation style that’s said to be mind-blowing in its depiction of a story sure to be fortified with their rare gift for blending quirky humor and heart.

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS: Two of last year’s Best Actress nominees, Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie, square off as Mary Stuart (Ronan) and the ruler’s cousin and arch enemy, Queen Elizabeth I (Robbie), in a rivalry involving love, power and marriages threatening to end their reigns. Acclaimed stage director Josie Rourke makes her feature-film debut.

BEN IS BACK: Julie Roberts tests her dramatic chops as the mother of an estranged son (Lucas Hedges) returning home on Christmas Eve vowing to stay clean. But can he do it? Courtney B. Vance co-stars and Peter Hedges (“Dan in Real Life”) directs.

VOX LUX: Natalie Portman will rock you as a faded pop star on the comeback in director Brady Corbet’s tale of a troubled singer rising from the ashes. Jude Law and Stacy Martin co-star.

Dec. 19

MARY POPPINS RETURNS: Disney resurrects the cherished classic with Emily Blunt filling the lofty shoes of the incomparable Julie Andrews. At least it isn’t a remake; going in a new direction with the kids from the original, Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane (Emily Mortimer), now grown up and facing child-rearing woes only magical Mary can solve with ye olde spoonful of sugar. The supporting cast is solid, featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julie Walters, Angela Lansbury, Dick Van Dyke and Oscar-winners Colin Firth and Meryl Streep. Rob Marshall (“Chicago”) directs.

Dec. 21

WELCOME TO MARWEN: Seems Robert Zemeckis has gone into the business of trashing superb documentaries by turning them into flaccid feature films. Exhibit A: his mauling of James Marsh’s “Man on Wire” via the stumbling, bumbling “The Walk.” Still brings snores just thinking about it. Now, the curly haired one is out to devalue Jeff Malmberg’s deeply moving “Marwencol,” the story of a brain-injured vet who found therapeutic splendor in his backyard by using G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls to recreate scenes and battles from World War II. Expect Zemeckis to reinvent it as a sappy puff piece with a doe-eyed Steve Carell playing the vet in full maudlin form. Plastic characters, indeed!

AQUAMAN: An all-wet Aquaman (Jason Momoa) made his film debut in the insipid “Justice League.” Now he’s back with his own movie, which attempts to raise him from the depths. Almost makes you long for the Aquaman parodied on “Entourage.” Almost!

BUMBLEBEE: Likely to be the third clunker of the long holiday weekend is this nonsensical, erector-set spinoff from the “Transformers” travesties. Borrowing heavily from Lindsay Lohan’s “Herbie Fully Loaded,” it has Hailee Steinfeld in the Lohan role as a precocious teen coming into the possession of a VW bug with superpowers. In this case, it’s a car unfolding into a giant robot.

SECOND ACT: Jennifer Lopez resurrects her “Maid in Manhattan” shtick, playing a 40-year-old ad woman out to prove to her male bosses that street smarts are equal, if not better, than book smarts.

Dec. 25

VICE: If you’ve seen the trailer, you know how eerily Christian Bale looks, sounds and talks like Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s biting satirization of the former vice president. And Sam Rockwell is no slouch, either, as Cheney’s boss, George W. Bush. I wonder how this one will play in the red states...

HOLMES AND WATSON: The potent comedy team of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly (“Talladega Nights”) is back to skewer the legendary Sherlock Holmes by playing, respectively, the Brit detective and his faithful yes-man, Watson. Etan Cohen, not to be confused with Ethan Coen, writes and directs.

ON THE BASIS OF SEX: Ruth Ginsburg is having quite a year, first with the excellent documentary “RBG,” now this dramatic rendering of her most famous -- and important -- case: The fight to end gender bias. Plus, who wouldn’t want the gorgeous Felicity Jones to play them? Mimi Leder (“Deep Impact”) directs.

January

DESTROYER: A decidedly glammed-down Nicole Kidman is almost unrecognizable in Karyn Kusama’s tale about an L.A. cop (Kidman) targeted for revenge by the leader of a ruthless biker gang that has a score to settle.

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK: Barry Jenkins follows up his Oscar-winning “Moonlight” with an adaptation of James Baldwin’s acclaimed novel about love, family and bigotry in 1970s Harlem. Newcomer KiKi Layne stars as the precocious teen through whose eyes the story is told.

COLD WAR: Poland’s official Oscar submission comes from previous winner Pawel Pawlikowski (“Ida”), who again explores the lasting damage of war via a love story that begins in the ruins of post-war Poland and sets off a roller coaster of pain and heartbreak set against Soviet oppression during the early days of the Cold War.

STAN & OLLIE: John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan tempt fates by playing the legendary comedy team of Laurel & Hardy during the dual’s barnstorm through Britain in 1953. But as they absorb the love of their many fans, old grudges and Ollie’s failing health cast a sour pall. Jon S. Baird directs.